• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 12, 2007

Blogging site the Huffington Post has hired a managing editor to ramp up its output of original reporting and content. Next Monday, BBC senior journalist Elinor Shields is set to fill the newly created post in New York, where she will oversee daily editorial operations for the site.

Late last year, pundit and publishing entrepreneur Arianna Huffington announced her plans to expand Huffington Post's horizons with original reporting. Her first hire--Melinda Henneberger as political editor based in Washington, D.C.--is a former reporter for The New York Times, who most recently served as a contributing editor at Newsweek magazine.

Since securing $5 million in venture capital last summer, Huffington has worked to expand her brainchild with video content and staff additions. And this month, Huffington Post is bringing on James Smith as its first chief revenue officer. (Smith came over from AOL's Advertising.com, where he served as chief of publisher services.)

As ad dollars have followed consumer eyeballs online, Web upstarts like Huffington Post have emerged as viable perches for print journalists. The Politico, an online news publication slated to launch later this month, recently made headlines by securing a stable of veteran journos: John Harris and Jim VandeHei from The Washington Post, Mike Allen from Time magazine and Roger Simon from Bloomberg News.

For Shields, the fact that Huffington Post is still establishing itself makes it all the more attractive. "That was the major appeal," she said. "Huff Post has proven it is a success--but not like the BBC, obviously. The fact that it was born on the Web makes it a free spirit to grow and transform."

Shields worked as a senior journalist on the BBC's world news desk for three years before joining Huffington Post.

With its often irreverent tone and balance of light and hard news coverage, Huffington Post has succeeded in attracting a wide range of advertisers. Present ads include campaigns for Miramax's "The Queen," HBO's "Rome," and H&R Block's free tax organizer. By contrast, many "political" Web sites are dominated by ads from political advocacy groups and text ads.

Since its launch in May 2005, The Huffington Post has forged deals with companies such as Continental Airlines, AOL, and ad agency JWT (formerly J. Walter Thompson). Also, IAC Advertising Solutions has served as Huffington Post's outside sales team since June.

Since September, the Huffington Post has grown 24% in unique users from 2.6 million to 3.2 million, and 55% in page views from 30 million to 48 million.

As the site continues to grow and morph into a publishing organ, industry watchers credit Huffington Post for the progress it has made.

"The site has been pretty successful in developing a new type of publishing model, and carving out a niche for itself in news and politics," Chris Batty, sales head at Gawker Media, said.